John Swinney, Deputy First Minister of the Scottish Government shares his thoughts on the importance of cybersecurity and why it is an essential component of delivering digital public services to citizens
Across the globe, our ability to inform and interact with citizens is being transformed by digital opportunities and Scottish public bodies, businesses and charities are developing ambitious plans to embrace these opportunities. However, the scale and nature of the cyber threat is indisputably on the rise and this presents a risk to Scotland’s ambition to be a world-leading nation in cyber resilience.
Worldwide, public services are being routinely and mercilessly subjected to low-level but high-volume attacks which capitalise on the complacency around basic cybersecurity measures, as well as more sophisticated and targeted cyber-attacks which in turn are impacting on the ability to provide essential health, social care and community services. This can also serve to undermine trust and confidence in the public sector.
The impact of a significant cyber-attack on any one organisation can be potentially catastrophic, but it does not necessarily stop at that one…
